Daniel Rowbottom battles to Snetterton race two win

NAPA Racing UK’s Daniel Rowbottom clinched victory in the second British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Snetterton, as the hard tyre-shod drivers struggled.

With the top three drivers in race one mandated to run the hard tyres in race two, the only drivers in the field with the less favourable rubber on were Dan Cammish, Tom Ingram and Ash Sutton.

At the start, Sutton made a strong launch and dived inside Ingram into Riches, before passing team-mate Cammish on the exit of the corner to take the lead.

As Sutton and Ingram held station at the front on the opening lap, Cammish found himself getting shuffled down the order as he suffered with both the hard tyre and the least TOCA turbo Boost [TTB] allocation, ending the lap in eighth.

Sutton and Ingram continued to lead on lap two, before Ingram suffered a huge slide through Riches on the next lap, the Team Vertu driver catching it at the exit of the turn but bouncing into the Armco on the inside of the corner, damaging his right-rear suspension.

Ingram then limped back to the pits to become the only retirement of the race.

Sutton ceded to team-mate Rowbottom going into the Esses further around the lap, and on the following tour his slide down the order increased, as the soft-shod runners, with rubber worth as much as a second more per lap according to some paddock sources, shuffled him down to sixth.

By now, Restart Racing’s Daniel Lloyd was up to second, and he set about trying to pass Rowbottom for the lead. On lap eight, Lloyd dived inside Rowbottom at riches, only to lose the lead again at Hamilton corner.

Lloyd’s charge seemed to fade thereafter, and on lap ten Team Vertu’s Adam Morgan, with more TTB, took second and closed in on Rowbottom.

However, Rowbottom held on to claim his first win since Thruxton in 2023 by three tenths of a second from Morgan, with his team-mate Tom Chilton completing the podium.

Lloyd was fourth, having lost out to Chilton on the penultimate lap, as the top Independent, ahead of Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley in fifth.

Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble was sixth, surviving contact from Sam Osborne on the sixth lap that speared him across the grass at the Esses without a loss of position.

Doble was then randomly drawn to start the final race from pole position, where he will be the only driver on the soft compound tyre.

One Motorsport’s Josh Cook was seventh, ahead of Osborne in eighth, whilst WSR’s Charles Rainford was the top BMW in ninth and NAPA’s Sutton completed the top ten as the best hard tyre driver.

Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill recovered from 21^st on the grid to take 11^th, ahead of the leading Toyota of Árón Taylor-Smith in 12^th.

Cammish was just 20^th after struggling for pace on the hard tyre.

Race three is scheduled to get underway at 16:55 BST.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	12	23:29.619	1:56.172	4
2	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	12	0.355	1:55.969	6
3	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	12	2.276	1:56.106	7
4	123	I		Daniel LLOYD	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	12	3.013	1:55.920	5
5	22	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	12	3.172	1:55.782	8
6	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	12	4.961	1:56.178	9
7	66	I		Josh COOK	One Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R	12	5.639	1:56.527	11
8	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	12	6.316	1:56.527	13
9	99	M		Charles RAINFORD	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	12	8.072	1:56.479	12
10	116	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	12	9.663	1:56.640	3
11	1	M		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	12	10.318	1:56.546	21
12	40	M		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	12	16.528	1:57.034	14
13	14	M		Ronan PEARSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	12	18.466	1:56.891	17
14	132	M		James DORLIN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	12	18.670	1:56.942	15
15	2	M		Daryl DELEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	12	19.510	1:56.666	10
16	16	M		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	12	21.120	1:57.278	25
17	52	M		Gordon SHEDDEN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	12	21.750	1:57.206	22
18	12	I		Stephen JELLEY	One Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R	12	21.898	1:56.966	24
19	54	M		Ryan BENSLEY	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	12	23.111	1:57.367	16
20	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	12	24.086	1:57.152	1
21	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	12	26.627	1:57.153	19
22	93	I		Max HALL	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	12	26.634	1:57.320	23
23	28	I		Nicolas HAMILTON	Powder Monkey Brewing Co with Esidock	CUPRA Leon	12	29.928	1:57.746	18
24	50	I		Nick HALSTEAD	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	12	31.324	1:58.032	20
R	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	2	DNF	1:56.611	2